Following a 1-1 draw in the first leg, the visitors fell behind after just 128 seconds as Lionel Messi shot through the legs of Thibaut Courtois from a tight angle.

Messi then set up Ousmane Dembele to hammer home the second after Cesc Fabregas lost possession.

Marcos Alonso hit the post for Chelsea with a free-kick before Messi’s 100th Champions League goal – after a mistake by Cesar Azpilicueta – took the hosts out of sight.

Alonso was then denied a penalty after a challenge by Gerard Pique as Barcelona joined La Liga rivals Real Madrid and Sevilla in Friday’s quarter-final draw.

Chelsea, meanwhile, join fellow Premier League clubs Manchester United and Tottenham in exiting in the first knockout round.

What next for Conte?

Chelsea’s elimination by the five-time winners is bound to add to the speculation about manager Antonio Conte’s future.

The Blues’ hopes of retaining the Premier League title ended weeks ago, and they may not even secure the top-four finish they need to return to the Champions League.

Conte’s side are fifth in the table, four points behind Liverpool, with their next league game at home to third-placed Tottenham on 1 April.

They head to Leicester on Sunday for an FA Cup quarter-final knowing defeat will leave them without a trophy for the second time in three seasons.

Conte, who has been in charge since the summer of 2016, has a contract until the summer of 2019 but has had to deny reports of a rift with the club’s owners.

Speaking last month, the 48-year-old Italian said it is his “intention, will and desire” to stay at Stamford Bridge.

However, Chelsea have lost four of their past six league games, including back-to-back defeats by Bournemouth and Watford.

Source: BBC

]]>http://sport.citifmonline.com/2018/03/15/messi-stars-as-barcelona-beat-chelsea-3-0/feed/0Barcelona’s Iniesta a doubt for Chelsea clash after injuryhttp://sport.citifmonline.com/2018/03/05/barcelonas-iniesta-a-doubt-for-chelsea-clash-after-injury/
http://sport.citifmonline.com/2018/03/05/barcelonas-iniesta-a-doubt-for-chelsea-clash-after-injury/#respondMon, 05 Mar 2018 09:34:01 +0000http://sport.citifmonline.com/?p=80795Barcelona could be without Andres Iniesta for the second leg of their Champions League last-16 clash against Chelsea after he suffered a hamstring injury.

Barcelona confirmed their key midfielder sustained the injury in his right leg during the first half of Sunday’s 1-0 La Liga win over Atletico Madrid.

Iniesta tried to continue after feeling the problem around the 20-minute mark, but he was eventually replaced by Andre Gomes after 34 minutes.

Barcelona host Chelsea on March 14 in the second leg of their last-16 clash, having drawn the first game at Stamford Bridge 1-1 last month.

“It’s difficult to find a substitute for him because there is no-one like him in the world. Let’s hope the injury is nothing serious.”

Lionel Messi’s 600th career goal sank Atletico and ensured Barcelona stretched their lead at the top of the table to eight points.

The Argentinian struck with a trademark free-kick as Barcelona edged past their nearest rivals to take a huge stride towards regaining the title.

–

Source: Sky Sports

]]>http://sport.citifmonline.com/2018/03/05/barcelonas-iniesta-a-doubt-for-chelsea-clash-after-injury/feed/0Chelsea 1-1 Barcelona: Messi breaks his duck to earn Stamford Bridge draw for Barcahttp://sport.citifmonline.com/2018/02/21/chelsea-1-1-barcelona-messi-breaks-his-duck-to-earn-stamford-bridge-draw-for-barca/
http://sport.citifmonline.com/2018/02/21/chelsea-1-1-barcelona-messi-breaks-his-duck-to-earn-stamford-bridge-draw-for-barca/#respondWed, 21 Feb 2018 05:00:58 +0000http://sport.citifmonline.com/?p=80397Lionel Messi broke his goal duck against Chelsea to deny Antonio Conte’s side a crucial lead over Barcelona in their Champions League showdown.

The Argentinian superstar had not scored in his previous eight meetings against the Blues, but he put that anomaly right with 15 minutes left to secure a 1-1 draw at Stamford Bridge.

Chelsea had gone ahead through Willian, who had earlier been twice denied by a post.

But Blues boss Conte, who revealed he had experienced trouble sleeping ahead of the match, will be having nightmares about the equaliser with his side unable to hold on for a crucial advantage to take to the Nou Camp for the second leg in three weeks.

The showdown between the current English title holders and Spain’s champions-elect was also billed as Messi against Eden Hazard, with the two illustrious number 10s facing each other for the first time at club level.

Hazard, spearheading the Chelsea attack with Willian and Pedro tucked in behind, certainly looked in the mood to show he deserves to be mentioned in such exalted company and fizzed an early 25-yard drive narrowly high and wide.

But it was Messi who eventually came out on top.

Messi was also looking menacing in the opening stages, with one sudden burst of acceleration leaving N’Golo Kante, Cesc Fabregas and Antonio Rudiger grasping at thin air.

The 30-year-old then collected Andres Iniesta’s pass on the corner of the area and chipped an inviting ball onto the head of Paulinho, who should have done far better than nod tamely across goal and wide.

In fact Messi’s mere presence was giving Chelsea’s defence the jitters – Andreas Christensen passed straight into touch to give away the cheapest of corners and Thibaut Courtois was lucky to get away with a mis-hit clearance.

Barcelona’s possession stats were touching the 80 per cent mark during the first half an hour, but crucially they had not tested Courtois.

Chelsea, meanwhile, earned some respite when Ivan Rakitic was booked as he tripped a rampaging Willian, with Marcos Alonso’s free-kick held by Marc-Andre ter Stegen.

Moments later Willian collected the ball from Hazard, cut inside and crashed a powerful curler against the far post with Ter Stegen well beaten.

And with five minutes of the first half remaining Willian’s snap-shot from the edge of the area clipped the outside of the opposite upright.

After the break Luis Suarez fizzed a shot across goal and wide, but it was Chelsea who broke the deadlock as Willian made it third time lucky.

From a short corner Hazard spotted the Brazilian unmarked on the edge of the penalty area, and Willian took a touch before arrowing a low shot beyond Ter Stegen and, this time, inside the post.

However, Barcelona hit back with 15 minutes remaining, punishing the first mistake of the night from the Chelsea defence.

Christensen’s suicidal pass across goal left Cesar Azpilicueta scrambling in vain and allowed Iniesta to cut the ball back to Messi.

He had been denied with his last 29 efforts on goal against Chelsea, but he made no mistake with number 30.

Coutinho, making his fifth appearance since a £142m move from Liverpool, came on in the second half and acrobatically steered home from Luis Suarez’s cross.

That put Barca, cup winners in the past three years, 2-0 up on aggregate in the semi-final second leg in Valencia, before Ivan Rakitic added another.

Barca will face Sevilla in the final.

Valencia – who are third in La Liga, 18 points behind leaders Barca – had two key chances but were well beaten by a team that looks certain to win the league title.

At 0-0, striker Rodrigo headed against the crossbar while Jasper Cillessen produced a stunning instinctive save to deny full-back Jose Luis Gaya from point-blank range following Coutinho’s opener.

After Rakitic coolly rounded off a late counter attack, finishing from Suarez’s pass, Barca brought on 23-year-old Colombian defender Yerry Mina – a £10.4m January signing from Palmeiras – for his debut.

Sevilla, sixth in the Spanish table 25 points behind the leaders, reached their second Copa del Rey final in three seasons with a 3-1 aggregate win over La Liga rivals Leganes.

Barca have won the competition three times in a row since losing to Real Madrid in the 2014 final.

The Argentina forward’s deflected shot wrong-footed Lopez in the 25th minute, and he almost added a second in the game’s closing stages with a thumping header that struck the post from Ivan Rakitic’s destructive cross.

An Espanyol strike would have sent Quique Sanchez Flores’ side through on the away goals rule, and Gerard Moreno had a penalty shout turned down in the 81st minute.

Moreno appeared to be about to connect with a cross on the counter attack – he only had the goalkeeper to beat – when he went down in the box under apparent pressure from Jordi Alba behind him, but the referee waved his appeal away.

Before kick-off, Argentina defender Javier Mascherano walked out onto the pitch to say his goodbyes, having completed a move to Chinese Super League club Hebei China Fortune.

The 33-year-old former West Ham and Liverpool player spent eight years at Barca, winning 18 trophies including four La Liga titles and two Champions Leagues.

Source: BBC

]]>http://sport.citifmonline.com/2018/01/26/coutinho-makes-debut-as-barcelona-reach-copa-semis/feed/0Ronaldinho: Brazilian football legend retires from footballhttp://sport.citifmonline.com/2018/01/17/ronaldinho-brazilian-football-legend-retires-from-football/
http://sport.citifmonline.com/2018/01/17/ronaldinho-brazilian-football-legend-retires-from-football/#respondWed, 17 Jan 2018 08:32:06 +0000http://sport.citifmonline.com/?p=79201Brazilian World Cup winner Ronaldinho has retired from football, although he has not played a game since 2015.

Ronaldinho, 37, was part of the triumphant Brazil 2002 World Cup squad, won the Champions League in 2006 with Barcelona and won the Balon d’Or in 2005.

His brother and agent Roberto Assis confirmed the retirement on Tuesday and announced a series of tribute events.

“He has stopped, it is ended,” Assis said.

“We will do various events in Brazil, Europe and Asia and, of course, we are arranging something with the Brazilian team as well.”

Ronaldinho started his career with Gremio in Brazil before moving to Paris St-Germain in 2001. After five years at Barcelona and two La Liga titles, he also had a spell at AC Milan where he won the Serie A title in 2010-11.

He moved to Brazilian side Flamengo in 2011 before spells at Atletico Mineiro, Queretaro in Mexico and Fluminense.

Source: BBC

]]>http://sport.citifmonline.com/2018/01/17/ronaldinho-brazilian-football-legend-retires-from-football/feed/0Philippe Coutinho completes Barcelona medical ahead of move from Liverpoolhttp://sport.citifmonline.com/2018/01/08/philippe-coutinho-completes-barcelona-medical-ahead-of-move-from-liverpool/
http://sport.citifmonline.com/2018/01/08/philippe-coutinho-completes-barcelona-medical-ahead-of-move-from-liverpool/#respondMon, 08 Jan 2018 13:03:37 +0000http://sport.citifmonline.com/?p=78894Philippe Coutinho has completed a medical ahead his transfer from Liverpool to Barcelona for a club-record fee, the Spanish club announced on Monday.

The club said in a statement: “Coutinho has an injury to his right thigh and he is expected to be out for around 3 weeks.”

That means Coutinho is likely to miss at least Barcelona’s next three games — against Celta Vigo (Jan. 11), Real Sociedad (Jan. 14) and Real Beits (Jan. 21). Barca are at home to Alaves on Jan. 28, before playing a local derby away at Espanyol on Feb. 4.

The 25-year-old forward was scheduled to sign a five-and-a-half-year contract at 12:30 local time before being presented at the Camp Nou stadium.

The transfer fee was not confirmed publicly, but sources confirmed to ESPN FC that it would reach £142 million (€160m, $192.7m), with Liverpool receiving £105m (€120m, $142m) up front and the rest in performance-related add-ons.

Even the base figure would make Coutinho the second-most expensive player in world football behind Neymar, who left Barcelona for Paris Saint-Germain last summer in a deal worth €222m (£200m, $263m).

Coutinho told Barca TV on Sunday: “I’m very happy, very happy. I have always said that it is a dream that I am living and I am very happy to be here.

“To be able to play, win titles, make the fans happy, always play with joy.

“It is incredible to know that I am going to live with idols, players with a lot of history.

Coutinho is already familiar with the city, having spent time living in Barcelona while on loan at Espanyol from Inter Milan in 2012, before eventually joining Liverpool from the Italian side for €10m the following year.

In five seasons at Anfield, where he played alongside future Barca teammate Luis Suarez, he has made 201 appearances and scored 54 goals, becoming a key part of Jurgen Klopp’s team.

Klopp had stressed on several occasions over the past few months that Coutinho was not for sale at any price despite Barca’s continued interest.

However, Coutinho’s desire to move to the Camp Nou eventually paved the way for negotiations to open between the two clubs, with Liverpool’s owners Fenway Sports Group reluctantly giving up on keeping the Brazilian.

Coutinho becomes Barcelona’s fifth signing of the season following the return of Gerard Deulofeu to his boyhood club and the arrivals of Ousmane Dembele, Paulinho and Nelson Semedo last summer.

Source: ESPN

]]>http://sport.citifmonline.com/2018/01/08/philippe-coutinho-completes-barcelona-medical-ahead-of-move-from-liverpool/feed/0Philippe Coutinho says £142m Barcelona move is a ‘dream come true’http://sport.citifmonline.com/2018/01/08/philippe-coutinho-says-142m-barcelona-move-is-a-dream-come-true/
http://sport.citifmonline.com/2018/01/08/philippe-coutinho-says-142m-barcelona-move-is-a-dream-come-true/#respondMon, 08 Jan 2018 04:57:40 +0000http://sport.citifmonline.com/?p=78862Brazil midfielder Philippe Coutinho says his move to Barcelona is a “dream come true” before his official presentation at the Nou Camp on Monday.

The 25-year-old is set to join the Spanish giants after a £142m deal was agreed with Liverpool on Saturday.

He took part in a brief photo session at the Nou Camp after Barcelona’s 3-0 win against Levante on Sunday.

Coutinho will officially sign his contract at 11:30 GMT on Monday before being presented to the public.

“Hi Barca fans, I am already here, it is a dream come true and I hope to see you tomorrow, ” he said in a video message on Twitter.

Later, in an interview with BarcaTV, Coutinho added he was excited to be soon playing alongside the likes of Lionel Messi and Luis Suarez.

“It is incredible to know that I am going to live with idols, players with a lot of history,” he said.

“I am very happy to be able to live together, to be able to learn from them and be able to win together.”

The playmaker will sign a five-and-half year deal and will have a buyout clause of 400m euros (£355m).

It is one of the most expensive transfers of all time, eclipsed only by the £200m Paris St-Germain paid Barcelona for Neymar last summer, and the £165.7m Kylian Mbappe will cost PSG at the end of his initial loan spell from Monaco.

Valverde on his £142m man

Speaking after the Levante game, Barcelona boss Ernesto Valverde said it was “too soon” to determine where Coutinho will play in his side.

It has been speculated that he could play alongside Lionel Messi and Luis Suarez in attack or become 33-year-old midfielder Andres Iniesta’s long-term successor.

“We can take advantage of his versatility,” Valverde said.

“He scores and sets up goals, and going forward he can help us a lot as he can play both inside and out wide.”

Valverde is confident Coutinho can improve a side that is nine points clear at the top of La Liga.

“I think he can bring a lot to the team,” he added.

“He is here now, and good luck to him, because if he has luck then it will be good for us.”

Barcelona midfielder Paulinho plays alongside Coutinho for Brazil and is looking forward to linking up with his compatriot at club level.

“He is a great player, a magnificent player,” the former Tottenham player said.

“I am certain he will really help Barca to attain our objectives this season.

Messi opened the scoring at the Nou Camp, chipping the ball to Jordi Alba and volleying home the return.

His 365th La Liga goal equalled Gerd Muller’s record for goals in a single one of Europe’s top five leagues.

Luis Suarez produced a superb strike before half-time and Paulinho tapped in a third in second-half stoppage time.

Suarez stepped over Messi’s low ball across the six-yard box, affording Paulinho a simple finish for his seventh league goal of the season.

Suarez, took his own tally to 11 and could have added more but for a fine Oier save in the second period.

Aside from a Marc-Andre ter Stergen save to keep out Shaquell Moore in a one-on-one opportunity, Barca eased to victory, extending their run to 26 matches unbeaten in all competitions.

Messi’s goal – his 16th in La Liga this season – means he needs to score just once more to surpass the record Muller set while playing for Bundesliga side Bayern Munich between 1964 and 1979.

The three points cancelled out second-placed Atletico Madrid’s win over Getafe on Saturday to restore a nine-point advantage.

The success also arrived in a good-news week for the club as they finally landed long-term transfer target Philippe Coutinho from Liverpool, with the Brazilian set to be confirmed as a Barca player imminently.

It is not yet clear how Coutinho will fit into Barca’s line-up, with some predicting he will be a long-term replacement for 33-year-old midfielder Andres Iniesta, who made his 650th club appearance.

Coutinho was not at the game, with reports in Spain suggesting he will complete a medical at Barcelona on Monday with a presentation to follow soon after.